Can stem cell therapy be used to combat severe sepsis?

Can stem cell therapy be used to combat severe sepsis?  There are many tissue sources of mesenchymal stem cells.Under normal circumstances, severe inflammation caused by a patient’s immune system can be fatal, but mesenchymal stem cells that exist in many human tissues can provide a new way to prevent this toxic reaction.

Sepsis is a clinical syndrome caused by the host’s loss of control of the inflammatory response. It will trigger a series of biological changes, often leading to septic shock, multiple organ dysfunction and death. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 30 million cases of sepsis every year, resulting in about 6 million deaths, and the cost of treatment is very expensive.

There is currently no effective treatment for the cause of sepsis. What doctors are doing is to minimize the damage so that the patient can be discharged as soon as possible.

Scientists are conducting a study called SEPCELL [1], which aims to develop a stem cell to fight severe sepsis. They focus on using adult stem cells that are present in many organs and tissues. These cells have the ability to self-renew and differentiate into other types of cells, which means they play a key role in cell repair and tissue regeneration.

TiGenix, headquartered in Belgium, and European research institutions are collaborating to develop adult mesenchymal stem cells. Most previous studies have tended to utilize the regenerative ability of stem cells, while the SEPCELL project attempts to utilize other potential uses of mesenchymal stem cells.

In previous studies, scientists have observed that mesenchymal stem cells have certain properties that can reduce the excessive immune response caused by sepsis; other similar studies have shown that these cells can secrete powerful antibacterial molecules and improve the body’s ability to kill bacteria.

In some animal experiments, infection and inflammation began to decrease within hours of stem cell injection. In 2016, some countries’s “Journal of Cellular and Molecular Immunology” published the research results of mesenchymal stem cells inhibiting the derivation of septic rats[2]——Mesenchymal stem cells can increase the survival rate of septic rats and reduce the levels of inflammatory cytokines . However, researchers said that the mechanism of action of mesenchymal stem cells is not yet fully understood, and more research is still needed in the future.

In view of the positive results obtained in animal experiments, the research team of the SEPCELL project hopes to conduct early research in human patients-using mesenchymal stem cells from healthy donors to treat sepsis caused by acquired pneumonia. The project is currently recruiting severely ill patients with sepsis, and it is expected to recruit 180 patients in different research centers in Europe.

Eliminate obstacles to the body’s natural healing

It is an important field of regenerative medicine to resolve diseases and disabilities by eliminating the body’s natural barrier to natural healing. The body’s natural defense system is very effective in fighting infections. It uses inflammation to remove harmful bacteria and toxins. But sometimes this immune response can become excessive, not only preventing effective treatment, but also harming what it is trying to protect.

The immune regulation ability of mesenchymal stem cells has received great attention in medical research, which is also the focus of the SEPCELL project. Mesenchymal stem cells can home to the injured site, reduce local and systemic inflammatory reactions, enhance bacterial clearance, reduce the harmful activity of neutrophils in injured tissues, and facilitate the formation of regulatory lymphocytes.

Mesenchymal stem cells have a variety of tissue sources, including bone marrow, fat, umbilical cord and placenta. In recent years, placental stem cells have set off another research boom after bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. A number of trials have shown that placental mesenchymal stem cells have great potential in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammation.

A number of recent studies have found that the immunomodulatory effect of placental mesenchymal stem cells has a beneficial effect on wound healing. Animal model experiments show that the use of placental mesenchymal stem cells can accelerate wound healing, which is mainly achieved by regulating the inflammatory response related to wound healing and by changing the secretion of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators.

(sourceinternet, reference only)

Disclaimer of medicaltrend.org